


Collision of Hearts

by rascallyflowerpower



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Emotional, Emotions, First Meetings, Grand Prix Final Banquet, M/M, POV Victor Nikiforov, Pining Victor Nikiforov, Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26018365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rascallyflowerpower/pseuds/rascallyflowerpower
Summary: He can feel someone there.  Everytime he steps on the ice, emotions that aren't his own surge within his breast.  His soulmate is watching him somewhere, feeling feelings for him that make him want to win, to skate more and more.  Winning gold means he feels his soulmate's presence more often, and as his search grows more desperate, he clings to that podium and those medals in the search of that connection.  During one particular Grand Prix Final, he feels the emotions of his soulmate grow stronger than ever.  Has he finally, after all this time, found his one true beloved?
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri & Victor Nikiforov, Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov
Comments: 22
Kudos: 250
Collections: Yuri!!! On Ice Soulmates Week 2020





	Collision of Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Day #4 Prompt for Soulmate AU Week = Emotion
> 
> The biggest twist of the entire series comes along during Ep.11, so I wondered what that particular Grand Prix Banquet twist would look like within the world of a Soulmate AU, and this was my answer!
> 
> I know the style is a little stream-of-consciousness, so I hope that what I was attempting to do with that works!
> 
> Enjoy!

He couldn’t remember when it began. In all the years he’d been training as a figure skater, the ice had only been cold and hard--an unforgiving palace that acted as much a cage as a canvas. He excelled. He thrived. He won. No matter how much adulation, how many cheers, his heart only ever felt as cold and empty as the thick layers of frozen water beneath his blades.

One day things began to change. 

Even though loneliness seeped into the very marrow of his bones, suddenly the one place he felt at home was the ice. It was strange to him, suddenly feeling so much while he skated. Powerful bursts of feeling surged within his chest where there had only been the echo of repetitive counts to the 4/4 beat of his music.

He’d heard of this thing happening before. Moments of pure connection between soulmates during intensely emotional events. It was odd, he thought, that his soulmate experienced such highs the exact moments when he was on the ice.

Feeling such intensity as he skated upon the ice was, at first, a blessing. What had been cold and lonely began to take on new depths of warmth and shades of color.

However, the feeling was fleeting, leaving as soon as it began to settle in.

“They  _ have  _ to be watching you, Vitka.” 

It’d become something of an after-competition encouragement session. Chris reminding him that his one person was out there. It'd been Chris who he’d first explained things to; Chris who had put two-and-two together for him.

“Your skating makes whomever they are feel something strong enough for the feelings to rebound. So they must be watching you.”

Chris was only trying to comfort him, but the more and more he took to the ice, the more discouraged he grew. Sitting slumped over in the locker room, the roulette of gold medals on his chest from competition after competition only grew heavier.

Just how many people watched him skate? The number was unfathomable. To find  _ one _ person among that sea of cheering, screaming, and clapping was almost impossible. He’d tried for years, rising to the status of a legend in his search, but all that served to do was make him feel more alone.

The ice turned bitter again. 

All his soulmates' feelings were still throbbing within his chest, strong and steady whenever he was on the ice. Now it felt like a mockery. No matter how much he skated. No matter how much he won. No matter how available he made himself for interviews, photoshoots, or how much he responded to fan mail and posted on social media. His soulmate was as distant and mysterious as the first day he’d felt their presence warming his chest.

“You could take a page from a fairy tail and treat this person as your Cinderella. Hold private meet-and-greets with fans?”

Georgi’s encouragement hit him about the same as Chris’s. It seemed like a great solution, but at this point in his career, searching every corner of the globe in that way was a Sisyphean task.

He was tired of searching. Tired and uninspired.

“Yuri Katsuki showed incredible promise in the Cup, enough to land him here, but it seems like the pressure is too much. This is what it looks like for a skater to fall apart.”

He heard the commentator speak into his microphone while making his way out from the Kiss and Cry. Turning momentarily to glance at the ice, Viktor saw the Japanese skater snag his toe pick unnaturally, the man tumbling down onto the ice. The sheer amount of white dust on Yuri Katsuki’s costume was enough to tell him this wasn’t the first fall in the program.

There was something else, though. Something inside his chest was starting to pinch and tighten, the feeling growing stronger as he watched the Japanese man on the ice stumble again and again and again. Watching Yuri Katsuki skate dejectedly off the ice and bury hands in his face next to Celestino at the Kiss and Cry.

His chest squeezed tight.

_ What is this feeling? _

Placing one hand over his heart, the other moving to rest his palm on the wall to stabilize himself, he managed to stay upright. His aim was the locker room. He needed to sit, needed to calm his quickening heartbeat before meeting the throng of press and fans.

“Vitka, what’s the matter?” Chris was suddenly at his back, and the warmth from the Suiss man’s large hands  _ should _ have been comforting, but they weren’t.

His lungs couldn’t hold the air they were taking. It felt like something was sitting on his chest, keeping him from taking normal breaths. The pressure in his chest was only worsened by the squeezing of his heart. 

_ A heart attack? Can’t be. _

Letting out a pained gasp, he punched the wall with a balled fist, the fingers of his other hand curling into the cloth on his chest as if trying to dig out his own heart. He could tell now that that was what it was. His heart was breaking.

No, not his heart, his  _ soulmate’s _ heart.

“Chris...they’re here. They’re really here. I have to find them.” His voice was desperate. There was no doubt in his mind that the sadness he was feeling, the deep and profound sorrow shattering his heart into a thousand pieces, was the bounce back from the breaking of his soulmate’s heart.

If he was feeling this much pain, how much  _ more _ profound was his soulmate suffering?

“Calm down, mon frere. I’ll help, but…”

Chris’s voice trailed off as he felt his legs begin to give out underneath him, eyes watering and rolling backwards before the world went dark to the sounds of Chris’s panicked shouts. 

When he finally came too, Chris's furrowed brow greeted him.

“It’s about time. You had me worried, Vitka. You had everyone worried.” 

His eyelids fluttered open. His hotel room was recognizable, so was the Suiss sitting next to him. There was still a dull ache in his chest, his heart still feeling like it was being pressed between two boards, but it was at least manageable.

“Care to tell me what happened?”

He explained everything to Chris while he worked to get up from the bed and clean himself up. The other man looked at him as if he already knew, and his explaining things only served to confirm Chris’s suspicions.

“Alright. So we know that your soulmate is here, and based on what you said, something terrible happened to them. What do you want to do about it?”

Those words made his already aching heart hurt. He hadn’t been able to handle that amount of suffering. It’d rendered him unconscious. Even though he’d been searching for his soulmate his entire adult life, this wasn’t how he’d imagined finding them. He wasn’t expecting to meet someone because they’d been broken, battered, and bruised inside. It hurt, knowing how much this person he’d never met suffered.

But he was excited that finally, after so long, he was  _ this _ close.

“I wish I knew. I wish I knew.”

The gala banquet was that evening. Chris stayed to help him get ready, suggesting possible plans for catching his soulmate. Chris had a feeling they must have been a skater or coach, and wouldn’t that make things so much simpler? If his soulmate was someone involved in the Grand Prix Final, it would mean that he’d see them at the banquet.

It was too much to hope for.

But his sore heart still held that hope as he put on the smile befitting a champion, greeting everyone with his usual charm and poise. He didn’t act distracted, but his eyes searched the banquet hall for any sign he’d actually found his soulmate.

Hushed whispers began to greet his ears as he turned to face who’d just entered the room. Celestino stood tall next to his skater—the Japanese man who’d come in 6th overall, Yuri Katsuki.

He cocked his head to the side, lifting a finger to his lips as he watched Yuri. The man seemed to shrink into himself, and seeing Yuri’s attempt to make himself invisible within a crowded room made his own heart ache.

It was an ache that felt exactly the same as the ache from earlier in the evening.

Eyes widening, he couldn’t tear his misty blues away from the Japanese man. Yuri’s posture and facial expressions seemed to mimic the exact feelings causing his heart to beat rapidly within his chest.

_ Is he? Could he really be? _

He tried to make his way through the crowd, but every time he managed to get a meter closer, someone else came to congratulate him or ask him a question. Yuri was at the drink table, and he wanted to be beside him. One look in the Japanese man’s eyes would tell him all he needed to know.

Chris had told him before that once someone met their soulmate, each of their emotions would collide and create a euphoria that couldn’t ever be replicated. If he could just get close enough, he’d be able to tell.

Instead of bliss, he grew more and more frustrated as his path to Yuri grew blocked by more people putting themselves in his path. His eyes never left the table Yuri stood beside, watching the Japanese man devour glass after glass of champagne. 

The ache in his chest dulled with each gulped down bit of bubbly liquid Yuri imbibed, which only made him even more certain that he’d finally found the person he’d been looking for. His heart all but stopped when, suddenly, Yuri turned and began to wobble towards him.

There was nothing he could do--nothing he wanted to do--when he was pulled into the arms of the shorter man. Even though he was drunk, Yuri’s expectant gaze, his confident words, and the feel of his hands dragging the other onto the dance floor were captivating. Euphoria was right, and he was helpless against Yuri’s pull.

He knew now. He knew that this man was the person he was destined for, and was more certain of that fact than anything else he’d known in his life.

It was obvious that this drunken Japanese skater was the person who he’d been searching for, and no matter what happened after this night, Viktor Nikiforov knew one thing--he belonged to Yuri Katsuki.


End file.
